Saturday, June 20, 2009

The Little Twitter That Could

At first, it looked as if all Twitter would ever prove to be was a fad destined to go the way of Ned Lamont and Hootie and the Blowfish, a silly little software program geared for those with the shortterm memory of a goldfish.

Yet the Iranian election fraud changed all that. Now, with Twitter's portability and ubiquity, it's promising to deliver democracy to Iran 140 characters at a time. Iran forums such as #IranElection and #rally to name just two, are streaming in reports by the tens of thousands every hour.

Just think, if we had Twitter 8 1/2 years ago, Al Gore would already be a former two term president and we probably wouldn't be in Iraq.

Therefore, I'm trying to exclusively stick to Twitter reports from those actually on the ground in Tehran instead of merely passing reports of other American idiots like me comfortably passing along second-hand reports on Twitter from their living rooms and kitchens (they can't be trusted to always include the "RT"). Therefore, I give you another female Iranian protester:

And from yet another Iranian protester, although he's posting from the web and I'm not sure he's on the ground (Iranians are just as prone as we are to creating echo chambers even if they're on the ground) :

Radan police chief threatens all citizen, ordinary people and journalists to stay at home #Iranelection2 minutes ago from web RT PLZ @Iranbaan Rev. Guard killed a protester on Valiasr & Enghelab ave, and quickly transferred the body to an unknown place #Iranelection13 minutes ago from web Rally turned into urban war, unconfirmed news of one killed person20 minutes ago from web @Iranbaan As a reporter I can say that the explosion was conducted/exec. by gov itself, to militarize the environment #Iranelection29 minutes ago from web

BASTARDS RT Iran: Two reports coming from Tehran about helicopters pouring boiling water on protesters. #IranElection1 minute ago from web RT f/iran: Gunshots continuously heard from Ghasr-ol-dasht street #iranelection #gr88less than a minute ago from web RT from Iran: Forces Shooting directly to the people in Amirabad ST #IranElection #tehran #iranians #mousavi #khomeini2 minutes ago from web RT from Iran: one of my friends got smacked so hard she has lost hearing in one ear #iranelectionless than a minute ago from web RT from Iran: RT @Amysco: Reliable: shooting directly into the people at Amirabad St. #iranelection1 minute ago from web RT @5280grl: Please remove names from Iran tweets- These r tracked RT #IranElection2 minutes ago from web RT @zie_nl: Police Shooting into Crowds / First video footage from Iran http://tinyurl.com/lkj32p #IranElection #gr889 minutes ago from web (This ZIE video was posted just minutes ago. Streaming will be slow due to heavy traffic.)RT from Iran: They are killing people, shooting people, hitting people, using tear gas...this is the regime with all its might #iranelection10 minutes ago from web DEFENT TOGETHER! RT from Iran: City closing down. People attacked with knives, batons, guns. Things going downhill. #iranelection11 minutes ago from web RT from Iran: today the world can see why we want our freedom from fascists - #Iranelection13 minutes ago from web SOS SOS RT from Iran: The world must not watch us - you must all join us wherever you are - #Iranelection RT RT RT13 minutes ago from web RT from Iran: About 5000 Protesters pushing back Police, Bassij and Hezbollah to Azadi St. #iranelection14 minutes ago from web

Hezbollah??? If that's true, that the Iranian gov't is using terrorist goons against the protesters, that's all the GOP needs to hear.